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In her previous paper, A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States,1 Melanie Klein expressed the opinion that there is a phase in the normal development of every child, usually as a reaction to weaning, which she called the 'depressive position'. It is this period to which the victims of depression regress. Klein's 'depressive position' is different from that which Abraham called 'Urverstimmung'. It is not limited to persons who later develop depressions, but is experienced by everyone and the fantasies which form the basis of the experience also differ from those described by Abraham. Melanie Klein was of the opinion that the child who 'loses' its mother's breast believes it to be its own fault and due to the sadistic attitudes growing out of the primary (oral) Oedipus complex, which, according to Klein, is already established in the first year of life. The child then tries to undo the loss by introjection and the incorporated objects continue to exist in the interior of the child as its 'inner objects' which have very complicated relations to the real 'outer objects'. These relations depend partly on the child's real experiences and partly on its fantasies and impulses. Continued sadistic fantasies threaten the existence of